Germany 4, Australia 0: The Old Diesel Becomes the Sports Coupe

It seems like the old diesel Mercedes now comes in a sports coupe edition. Who would have predicted that that of all teams, Germany would succeed in setting World Cup 2010 alight after the French, Argentinians and the English all failed miserably to light the torch paper?

The Germans looked sprightly, the first team thus far to enforce an attacking modus operandi upon their opponents. Granted, the woefully monikered Socceroos were hapless in defence, and once they were unjustly deprived of their best player, Tim Cahill, it did seem like the Vuvuzelas in the stands were playing the “imperial march” from Star Wars. But one couldn’t hep from being impressed.

Kitted out in a slightly different incarnation of the famous Adidas German kit (the black red and yellow stripe now goes vertically rather than horizontally) this sowed the seeds for ‘change’, a word that there probably isn’t a German translation for. The normal mechanical and reliable German machine has developed a rather easy-on-the-eye touch of beauty and grace. Fair to say this team is far more Claudia Schiffer than Boris Becker.

The Germans’ approach to the game is what we’ve all been hoping for so far. The tournament has labored thus far with over precautionary defending and conservative midfielders. For those of you who suffered the early games yesterday between Ghana and Serbia, along with Team USA’s other opponents, Algeria and Slovenia, will take at least one small comfort from three hours you’ll never get back. That comfort being that USA should have more than enough to deal with their remaining opponents.

But Germanically speaking, this youthful side attacked in waves. The youngest German squad in 76 years has brought the arrogance that youth almost always offers and Mesut Ozil, in for the injured Ballack, has grabbed his opportunity with both hands and should be a star of this tournament. The 21-year-old Werder Bremen midfielder was a clear choice by all and sundry as Man of the Match and orchestrated the German attack like a master conductor. It’s a very simple game, is football, when broken down to the basics. Pass the ball accurately, then move into space beyond defenders and put the ball in the net. Who better than the Germans to demonstrate how simplicity mixed with a dash of flair can make this work so wonderfully well.

The USA will need to win their remaining two games by a bigger margin than the English. Whoever finishes second will almost certainly fall at this particular German sword. It pains me to write this as the wife has once again, it seems, managed to pick a serious contender for a tournament that has just begun.

One Comment

Germany looked like Brazil in 1970 WC final. Brilliant performance, but this means nothing in the long run except for a nice goals +/-. Amazing that the announcer during the Slovenia/Algeria game was saying that Slovenia had no reason to go for another goal when goal differential might determine who gets out of the group!

I watched this game at Brooklyn Bowl, which also had a record fair going on at the same time. This seemed like a good idea going in, but turned into a sort of surreal/bizarre experience (no game atmosphere to speak of, though the giant screen is probably best in NYC that I know of). Only reason I didn’t split at halftime was it was raining out and they had a pretty good beer special…